Burrowing animals such as moles have long been a problem in connection with gardens and lawns. The foremost animal which causes destruction in gardens and lawns is the ground mole. Various poisons have been developed and traps have been designed in an effort to control the mole. Commercially mole traps have included a loop extending into the ground and spring loaded to trap the mole when the pressure of movement of the mole through the mole tunnel is sensed. Patents showing such pressure actuated traps comprise U.S. Pat. No. 936,808. It has been suggested that some type of trigger be provided in the mole tunnel, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 75,438, 549,977, 1,865,920, 1,918,582, 2,146,019, and 2,475,467.
Among the objectives of the present invention are to provide an improved mole trap which will effectively trap moles; which can also be utilized to trap other burrowing animals such as prairie dogs, gophers, groundhogs, rats and the like; which can not be readily sensed by the animal; which does not have any metal parts in the path of the animal; the presence of which is not readily determined by the animal; which is easily tripped by the animal from either direction of travel through the tunnel; and which is easily placed and low in cost.
In accordance with the invention, the mole trap comprises a base adapted to be placed on the ground, a pair of spring loaded levers pivoted to said base and movable from a latched position to an unlatched position, a loop associated with each lever and adapted to extend into the ground transversely of the mole tunnel and a lever projecting into the tunnel and engageable by the mole in its travel through the tunnel to unlatch either of the levers and permit the spring associated with lever to move the loop and engage and trap the mole.